Executive session tapes dominate Buffalo Grove meeting

Buffalo Grove has yet to destroy the tape of an executive session, although in one notable instance one was lost. When the time comes to destroy one, however, the village now will follow state statute rather than local ordinance.

On Monday trustees, voted to repeal the ordinance they enacted in 2006 governing the destruction of closed meeting records.

That ordinance allowed audio or video recordings of closed meetings, which are required to be taped under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, to be destroyed no less than 18 months after the meeting, provided that the minutes of the meeting have been approved and there is no court order or village authority calling for their preservation.

There is little difference in the state statute, which also would allow the recording to be destroyed after 18 months. Village President Elliott Hartstein said after the state recently made amendments to the Open Meetings Act, he was concerned that their might be some conflict between the village ordinance and what the state statute required. He consulted village Attorney William Raysa, who felt it was appropriate to repeal, Hartstein said.

Trustee Lisa Stone welcomed the repeal resolution, noting that she had been calling all along for the village to follow state statute, suggesting it to Village Clerk Janet Sirabian and Raysa.

"I was actually right, and what's funny enough is I'm not a lawyer, but I am sitting with a group of lawyers," she said. The village president and some of the trustees are lawyers.

But Stone found the timing of the ordinance's enactment and eventual repeal curious, especially in the light of the disappearance of the tape of a closed meeting held more than five years ago.

Stone has been searching for information about the closed session April 18, 2005, where one of the topics of discussion was an environmental review by Shaw Environmental of the Land and Lakes landfill, which was ultimately annexed into the village.

The study, which suggested the need for more soil borings and raised concerns about missing groundwater data, was not completed, because, according to village officials, plans to purchase the land for use by the park district were abandoned, ending the need for further study.

Stone, who is concerned about the possibility of contaminated groundwater from the landfill, wanted to listen to the tape, which was supposed to be under lock and key, but Sirabian could not locate it.

Stone said she found it interesting that the ordinance on destruction of executive session tapes was passed almost 18 months to the day from when the executive session was held. She noted that the only tape of an executive session that has gone missing is the one discussing the Shaw report.

She asked, "Is there a coincidence? I'm just saying to a reasonable man that they passed a resolution that allowed for the destruction of a tape that has since, as we know, gone missing."

At one point, as she was raising these issues, Hartstein addressed her, "And your point, Trustee Stone?"

She responded, "Oh, I think I made many points, President Hartstein. If you want me to repeat it, I certainly can for you."

Stone kept pressing trustees for any memory they might have about the meeting, which lasted 20 minutes and, from all accounts, focused mostly on litigation with the Village of Wheeling.

Stone pointedly asked the board, "Have you had any epiphany in the past two months of what took place at that meeting? There is no summary, and there is no audio. Do you have any memory? I think the public would like to know."

After Hartstein said that the question has been asked and answered several, times, she urged him, "Why don't you be the leader and tell us what you remember of that meeting?"

He responded, "We have an ordinance before us, which is to repeal an ordinance. I gave you much leeway, probably more than I should have as the chair, but I'm trying to be fair and I'm trying to bend over backward so that you feel that you have an opportunity to share your thoughts on this issue, though I feel they are irrelevant, mainly because of the fact that at no time since the requirement was imposed by state statute (in 2005) that we have verbatim tapes of closed minutes, at no time have we ever destroyed any tape. So to suggest by innuendo or otherwise that it is curious that we passed that resolution in 2006 that happened to be 18 months after a particular meeting is quite frankly a bunch of malarkey."

During the discussion, Stone also called for an investigation into the missing tape.

Stone made repeated references to the possibility that Sirabian, under the repealed resolution, could have destroyed the tape of the executive session without board approval. This prompted Trustee Beverly Sussman to defend Sirabian.

"I feel that Clerk Sirabian acted 100 percent correctly according to the directives given by this board," Sussman said.

Finally Trustee Jeffrey Berman asked Sirabian point blank if she or anyone under her control has destroyed an executive session tape. When she answered in the negative, he called the question.